The logic of movement
[ … XP …. Gap… ]the properties of XP are the properties typically associated with the gap positionI wonder [who Mary likes]
CP CPwho IP who IP
Mary VP Mary VP V V NPlikes likes who
Argument 3: Case
I saw him he left
*I saw he * him left
who(m) did you meet? who met you?
* whom met you?
who do you think [_ should meet M in Rome]?
whom do you think [M should meet _ in Rome]?
* whom do you think[ _ should meet M in Rome]?
Argument 4: Syntactic selection
I relied on Bill for adviceI turned to Bill for advice* I relied to Bill for advice* I turned on Bill for advice
On whom do you think that Bill relies_ for advice?
* To whom do you think that Bill relies _ for advice?
The mechanics of movement
‘Pure’ physical displacement
[ you like who] [who [you like]]
Copying
[ you like who][who [ you like who]]
According to the copy theory, there are silent
traces of dislocated constituents.
Partitive clitic pronouns in Italian
Gianni ha incontrato una americana
Gianni (has) met a-fem American-fem
Gianni ha incontrato una americana
Delete the last vowel of the article if the
following word starts with the same vowel
(OBLIGATORY at a normal speech rate)
Partitive clitic pronouns in Italian
Gianni ha incontrato una ragazza franceseGianni (has) met a-fem girl-fem French-fem
Gianni met a friendly committee
Paolo ha incontrato una ne americana
Paolo has met a-fem one American-fem
Paolo met an American one
Obligatory movement of partitive pronouns
Paolo ha incontrato una ne americana
Paolo has met a-fem one American-fem
Paolo met a friendly one
ne must move onto the first inflected verb
Paolo ne ha incontrata una _ americana
Gianni one has met an __ American
Paolo met an American one
Blocking of contraction
Paolo ha incontrato una americana
Paolo ne ha incontrata una americana
Contraction is impossible here
* Paolo ne ha incontrata un americana
The copy theory arguably explains why
Paolo ne ha incontrata una ne amica
The two a’s are not adjacent, after all
A similar phenomenon in English
I want to go home I wanna go homewant to wanna in fast, informal speech
you want [CPto meet Sue at the party]
who do you want [CPto meet __ at the party]?who do you wanna meet __ at the party?you want [ Bill to meet Sue at the party]who do you want [__ to meet Sue at the party]?Can want to contract to wanna in this environment?
Traces (can) block contraction
Who do you wanna meet at the party?
Who do want to meet Sue at the paty?
* Who do you wanna meet Sue?
Who do you want [to meet who at the party]?
Who do you want [who to meet Sue]?
If movement is not copying and doesn’t leave
silent traces behind why would contraction be
blocked in the observed manner?
Summary
Two major syntactic processes
Merge: builds base structures out of lexical
items
Copy: dislocates items from base structure
position- copy introduces invisible elements that, however,
the mind’s eye sees.
Cross linguistic variation
• If a language has the order [O V], we should expect the order [NP P]
• Languages with the order [O V] and [P NP] should be rare and tendentially unstable
• Latin:
puellam video me cum
girl-acc see-1st me with
An exercise in translation
Taro-ga Hiro-ga Hanako-ni syasin-o
Taro-SU Hiro-SU Hanako-DAT picture-ACC
zibun-no miseta to omette iru
self-POS showed that thinking be
An exercise in translation
Taro-ga Hiro-ga Hanako-ni zibun-no
Taro-SU Hiro-SU Hanako-DAT self-POS
syasin-o miseta to omette iru
picture-ACC showed that thinking be
Taro is thinking (thinks) that Hiro showed a
picture of himself to Hanako
Word order: After (>) or Before (<)
Taro-SU [[Hiro-SU Hanako-to self-POS
picture-ACC showed]IP that]CP thinking be
Element A Element B J E
V DO > <
V PP > <
V CP > <
P complement NP > <
N complement NP > <
Comp complement IP > <
Aux V > <
The head-complement parameter
No invariant universal basic orderNo ‘any basic word order goes’ (27 = 128)Conditionals statements of the form:If the language is O V it has postpositionsIf the language is V O it has prepositions[Greenberg’s universal # 3][X YP] English, Edo, Thai,.. 42%[YP X] Japanese, Lakhota, Latin,.. 45%
English vs. Japanese clause structure
IP
NP I’
Chris
is VP
V PP
talking P NP
with Pat
IP
NP I’
VP iru ‘is’
John-ga PP V
NP P renaisite
to ‘in love’
Mary ‘with’
Another parameter
John wonders [Lea ate what]?
John wonders what Lea ate __
* What does John wonder Lea ate __
* What does John wonder whether Lea ate __
wh-words move to mark the scope of a Q
(= what is being asked)
wonder takes Qs; wh-words must move next to it to satisfy this requirement
Verbs of believing
John believes [Mary ate what]?
* John believes what Mary ate__
what (does) John believe [Mary ate __]
believe takes a proposition (‘a thought’); it cannot take a Q. Hence, a wh-word cannot move next to it. It must move passed it. Otherwise, it would wrongly signal that you are ‘believing a Q’
To reiterate the point (from a different position)
John wonders [who stole the cookies]
* who does John wonder [__ stole the cookies]
* John believes [who stole the cookie]
Who does John believe[ __ stole the cookies]
Versatile verbs: know
John knows [Lea ate what]?
John knows what [Lea ate __]
What does John know that [Lea ate __]?
know takes both Qs and propositions
Therefore, a wh-word can move either next to it, or passed it. In either case, the semantic needs of know will be met.
Mandarin: A language without wh-movement
a. [Zhangsan wen wo [shei mai-le shu]]
Zhangsan ask me who buy-ASP book
b. [Zhangsan xiangxin [ shei mai-le shu]]
Zhangsan believe who buy-ASP book
c. [Zhangsan zhidao [shei mai-le shu]]
Zhangsan know who buy-ASP book
What do these sentences mean?‘ask’ vs. ‘believe’
a. [Zhangsan wen wo [shei mai-le shu]]
Zhangsan ask me who buy-ASP book
Zhangsan asked me who bought the book
b. [Zhangsan xiangxin [ shei mai-le shu]]
Zhangsan believe who buy-ASP book
Who does Zhangsan believe bought the book
What do these sentences mean?
c. [Zhangsan zhidao [shei mai-le shu]]
Zhangsan know who buy-ASP book
Interpretation 1 (Indirect Q):
Zhangsan knows who bought the book
Interpretation 2 (Direct Q):
Who does Zhangsan know bought the book?
A simple explanation
wh-words move to mark the scope of a Q
In English, they move before spell out
John knows [Lea ate what]
John knows what [ Lea ate __]
What (does) John know (that) [Lea ate__]
In Mandarin, they move after spell out
J. Huang “Wh-movement in a language without wh-movement” (1982)
Examples of ‘parametric variation’
• The Head-parameter: put heads of phrases first/last
• The wh-parameter: Move wh’s before/after spell out
Language
• A universal, specific structure (X’-schemata, move X to Y)
• Dimension of variation/parameters(the head-parameter/the wh-movement parameter)
• The universal part constitutes the initial state of the language learner
• What needs to be learned:- Which categories are in use- How parameters are set- The lexicon
Syntactic competence
- Data: native speakers intuitions, language internal regularities, universals, language contrasts
- Model: A formal system for language generation (head, merge, …), with parameters
- Universals as theorems
- Insight on language variation and language acquisition